The Road Less Traveled by Janelle Wilson

The last week of Vacation Bible School seemed to be more relaxed maybe because I was getting used to the heat or maybe due to the kids becoming more familiar with us.  Whatever the case our friendships grew stronger with each passing day.   My dear little friend and her sister that I grew so fond of will forever be in my heart and I hope to see them again someday.  As I sit here writing I can’t help but have great gratitude for all those who helped me get to Cambodia.  I know God had His hand on every part of this mission trip. 

We were able to provide many new items for the school, church, gym and foster care facility.  Some of them included a new suspension bar in the gym, soccer balls, reusable heavy duty water bottles and shirts for the children in the foster home.

My favorite part of our last day was when we realized the 25 plus kids in the temporary foster home had only 1 set of Duplo bricks for play.   As we had gone into this trip with intend to find needs in which we could help, I asked our Cambodian driver to take me to a toy shop.  For a couple hundred dollars I was able to purchase 2 wooden train sets, a kitchen set, several games, numerous books, 6 puzzles, 4 hand balls and 3 large ride-able rubber bouncy reindeer's (similar to the old school Hopper Ball with handle).  I was amazed at how many items I was able to get for the kids.  This was all paid for by the donations from so many of you!

We were sent this picture yesterday of some of the kids playing with the toys

Upon our final goodbye, we had the kids sit in a semi-circle of the foster care center.  The kids sat patiently as we brought in the pile of toys.   When they were able to dive in and pick a toy to play with, there was screams of joy and tons of laughter.  It was amazing to see the joy and excitement these toys brought to the room (children & helpers).  My eyes again filled and my heart was overflowed.  It felt like Christmas morning. 

As we climbed back into the van for the last time, I peered out the back window.  The sight of the dirt road, the moto’s, the villagers and the various smells will be greatly missed.  Again with tears in my eyes I realized that these people had blessed me far more than I could ever imagine.  I can say that these kids despite poverty and hardship, love Jesus with all their hearts.  And completely rely on Him for their salvation. 

Tim's Perspective: Chilling Moments

Our two weeks were full of chilling moments, moments that gave me chills, despite a climate that would never give anyone the shivers.  These are the top moments that gave me the goose bumps:

1. On our first day, we were given a tour of all (or at least most) that Agape International Missions (AIM) is doing in Phnom Pen.  It is quite mind blowing all that they are doing. My favorite thing though is the employment center where the girls who have been rescued and "rehabilitated" are working.  We walked in and were greeted with waves, smiles, and hellos!  So much joy! These are women who have been through hell on earth, however, they have been rescued and God has worked His healing power on them.  Such a beautiful, hopeful thing, it gave me chills!

2. Imagine 200 children, ages 3-11, in a room about 1500 square feet singing at the top of their lungs praises to our God. It happened most every day. On one particular day, it was especially boisterous.  I leaned over and said to Janelle, "I can only imagine how much joy God gets out of this."  It gave me chills!

3. As a leader of the team, you worry about how your team members are doing.  On two separate occasions near the end of our trip, two of my team members confessed to me that if they did not have families, they would not be going home.  It gave me chills both times!

4. Imagine sitting through a church service where 90% of what was said was in a language that you did not understand.  Boring, right?  Wrong! Almost everyone on the team said that one of their favorite things was attending church in Svay Pak.  Not that we could understand much.  But we shared communion.  And the presence of the Holy Spirit was palpable.  It gave me chills!

5. Near the end of the first week or the beginning of the second week, we are all a little bit weary.  I woke up early to prepare my devotional feeling particularly worn out.  As I open up my Bible, out fell a stack of 3x5 cards.  The night that we left, our church had a prayer meeting to send us off.  These cards were the things that they prayed for us.  At the end of the prayer meeting, when I was handed the cards, I thought to myself, "what am I going to do with these?".  When they fell on the floor and as I picked them up, I leafed through them.  I realized that God had answered EVERY SINGLE ONE of those prayers.  It was just the reminder and encouragement I needed. It gave me chills!

6. In the middle of the second week, we knew that that afternoon an altar call was going to be presented to the guys in the gym. As a team we prayed that there would be one, maybe two guys to accept Christ.  Later that day, near the end of the day, Clay came up to me and told me that not one, not two, but twelve guys had accepted Christ.  It gave me chills and almost made me cry.  Almost...

Twelve of these guys accepted Christ!

7.   Janelle astutely observed that the place that housed the foster children was devoid of toys. She asked the Pastor's wife about it.  She said that no one had bought the foster kids any toys for a long time.  Janelle took it upon herself to remedy that. During her lunch hour, she took $300 and went nuts.  You would not have believed all the toys she got for $300.  The very last thing we did was present those toys to the foster children.  It was better than the best Christmas you can think of.  It gave me chills!

8. Our last day, near the end of the day, we had a chance to meet with the Pastor and all of the Cambodian staff.  We thanked each other and we prayed over them. But then they gave us a Certificate of Appreciation.  When they handed it to me, I could not read it for several moments for fear of breaking down.  They were the ones that do the heavy lifting all the time. They were the ones that made us feel so welcome. They were the ones that prepared us lunch every day. They were the ones that blessed us.  And yet, they were thanking us.  It chocked me up, but also gave me chills.

Living in God's story is far from dull. When you have the opportunity to be a part of something where God is clearly working, it is so fulfilling and brings one such joy. I doubt there is any high like it. And in a country where people rarely experience goose bumps, I got the chills often! 

Tim

Tim's Perspective: Cambodia, The Land of the Unexpected

Cambodia is a very interesting place.  I had been to Thailand, so I thought I had a pretty good idea of what Cambodia would be like.  Although comparatively similar to Thailand, Cambodia was full of surprises.  These are my top ten (and maybe a couple of extras) surprising things:

1. Traffic!!!!!!!!!:  I have been in places with horrendous traffic.  For one thing, I live in Southern California.  But I have also been to Manilla, and I did not think that traffic could be more crazy than in the Philippines. But Cambodia takes the prize!  Traffic is unbelievable.  For those of you in Southern California, picture the 405 on a Friday with about 1 million motorcycles and tuk tuks thrown in.  There was one afternoon where we moved ten feet in one hour.  I decided to walk down the road to see what the problem was (an accident?; road construction?).  There wasn't any problem. It was just crowded and there is no intelligible right of way at intersections.  So it was just a logger jam! Traffic in Cambodia is absolutely insane!

This picture cannot even begin to exhibit how bad the traffic can get

2. Tuk Tuks:  I had never seen anything like a tuk tuk, the primary mode of transportation (besides scooters or motorcycles).  They are fun to ride in.

Clay with "our" tuk tuk driver

3. How Many Can You Fit on a Motorcycle / Scooter:  On our last night in Cambodia, I saw the record!  Six people on one motorcycle, including a naked baby being held by mama!  I never would have believed it.  Four people on a motorcycle is common, and a few times we saw five on a motorcycle!  We thought that could not be beat!  But low and behold, I saw six!  Oh, and all without helmets, by the way.

4. Good Food:  I was not ready for how good the food was going to be.  Yes, Khmer food is good. It is very similar to Vietnamese food.  But in Phnom Pen, there are tons of good restaurants.  While on our trip, we ate Khmer food, French food, Japanese, dim sum, in addition to several solid Western food restaurants.  My only regret was that we did not go to the Indian restaurant.  There are a plethora of food choices.  And, the local food has some interesting things to eat.  Frog was not as bad as I expected.  Most of my team loved it. I tolerated it.  Some of our team ate tarantula and said it was good. And then we all tried durian, a local fruit that is called the King of Fruits that most Westerners hate.  Most of us enjoyed it, although I will admit that one said it tasted like the bottom of her shoe.  Still, overall, I was blown away by the variety and quality of the food in Cambodia. 

The team at one of our favorite digs, The Grand River

5. WiFi:  There is WiFi everywhere! And it is fast! That was totally unexpected!

6. Gracious Cambodians: Cambodians should all be in service businesses.  They are so warm and friendly and anxious to help.  They are a kind and gracious people.  And it was not just the people we worked with. It was pretty much everyone from the hotel staff to our tuk tuk drivers.  They are so warm and anxious to please.

7. No Trash Systems:  If I was president of Cambodia for a day, I would establish some sort of trash system and install at least a million trash cans.  Phnom Pen is a very dirty city.  There is trash everywhere.  And finding a trash can is next to impossible.  Likely because even if you had a trash can, there is no place to take the trash once it is accumulated.

8. English and the U.S. Dollar:  Almost everyone in Cambodia speaks at least a little broken English.  English is taught in the schools.  You can go almost anywhere and find someone who speaks English.  And the U.S. Dollar is literally everywhere!  The tiniest street merchant will gratefully accept the U.S. Dollar and knows the exchange rate.  Most places show their prices in U.S. Dollars, not the Riel (the Cambodian currency).  There is never a need to change money in Cambodia.  In fact, you do not want to.  The Riel is $4000 to $1 U.S. Dollar. You can have a wad of Riel, and it will only be worth $10 U.S. Dollars.

9. Sleeping Arrangements:  First of all, there are very few actual houses in Cambodia. Most are places that also house some sort of business, in addition to bedrooms and a kitchen for eating.  Then there are quite a number of people who sleep in their tuk tuks.  Finally, there are a lot of people who simple string a hammock up and sleep in the hammock. 

10. Fancy Cars:  I have never seen so many Range Rovers.  I also saw more Rolls Royce in two weeks in Cambodia than I have in ten years in Los Angeles.  Lexus are everywhere.  Cambodia is an extremely poor country so it does not seem to make sense.  But the government is raft with corruption...  Need I say more?

Bonus Shocker:  One final thing was the prevalence of technology next to extreme poverty.  iPhone where everywhere.  It was not uncommon to see an absolute dump of a house with a satellite dish on top.  

Cambodia is land full of surprises.  It is a country of odd juxtapositions.  It is a country of great beauty that is, at the same time, full of trash.  It is an odd place. What surprised me most, however, was how much it stole my heart.

  

The Fight's Not Over

On our last day in Svay Pak, I was walking over to the gym when I saw Justin standing in the middle of street with a strained look on his face. When I asked him what was going on, he pointed to a westerner who was standing next to a Tuk Tuk, just a few buildings down from AIM's Rahab's House, where we have Kid's Club. I had never seen him before, but that doesn't mean much. Maybe he was here to see someone on AIM's staff. I am a police officer and I watch people walking down the street all the time. I'm looking for behavior that is out of the ordinary, or for ordinary behaviour that is missing. Watching him for a moment I did notice that he looked unsure; a bit lost. He walked back to the Tuk Tuk, said something to the driver, then walked back in my direction. Justin wasn't sure if we should approach him. I am a cop. I talk to dirtbags all the time and if this guy was a dirtbag, I wanted to know right away.

I walked up to him and I could see that he was a white male, in his early 40s. "Hi," I said, "You look lost, are you looking for someone?"

"No..." he replied with a German accent.

"So, what brings you here today?", I ask with my friendliest smile.

"Oh, I'm looking to drink a beer or soda. This place his changed so much. I haven't been here for 12 years. The cafe I used to go to is gone." Twelve years ago, this place was a pedophile's dream. There were several brothels with no shortage of children.

Ironically, this conversation was going on in front of the Kids Club building. Kids are running in and out around us. I am talking to a tourist-seeking-pedophile in front of AIM's Svay Pak Head Quarters and Church.

I told him that there is a cafe just next door, and he walks away. Justin and I quickly found Chad, one of AIM's staff members and told him what had just happened. Just 20 feet from us, the pedophile was sitting in the cafe, directly next door to Rahab's House having a drink. This scenario was right out of AIM's documentary, The Pink Room. I encourage you to see it if you havent already.

NOBODY comes to Svay Pak for a soda, nobody! This is a poor, nondescript area, 20 minutes away from the city. On our first day, our driver couldn't even find the turn off from the highway to Svay Pak. The only foreigners that venture here are those who know children can be purchased for sex here.

AIM's staff took over from here. They sent a Cambodian staff member to the cafe to strike up a conversation with the bad guy. Typically, a foreginer would go into Svay Pak, or some other area known for trafficking children, and sit in a cafe until a pimp sees him and arranges a child for him to rape. So, probably when the undercover AIM staff member talked to him he was assuming he was a trafficker. The foreigner freely told him that he was in Svay Pak six years ago and bought two young girls, and he was looking for some girls today.

After a while he gave up and got back in his Tuk Tuk and traveled back to his hotel in Phom Pen. This gave AIM enough time to gear up their undercover team; their "SWAT" team. They have an agreement with the goverenment to conduct investigations on suspected pedophiles and under certain circumstances, take them into custody. The SWAT team followed the pedophile back to his hotel and set up surveillance on him. They will follow him from there, and if they can show that he is buying children for sex, they will arrest him. While Justin and I watched this horrible human being sitting in the cafe (see photo below), waiting to buy and rape a child, we prayed against him. We prayed that God would protect the children in Cambodia against him and all like him, and we prayed that he would be outed and arrested. This will be my ongoing prayer.

Child Sex Predator Waits for Pimp

I asked Pastor Chanta (the head pastor of the AIM church) if this happens often. "Sadly, yes." he said. I really feel like God put this situation in front of me to remind me that it's not all fun and games over here. Even as you could hear the children singing from the open windows of the Kid's Club, a child sex predator drank a soda in the cafe next door. The fight is far from over. AIM has done so much for this area, but so much more is needed to be done. The wolf is not at the door, he is INSIDE, running among the sweetest children you would ever meet.

Many of you that are reading this blog have given generously to AIM, me, and the other members of the Newsong team. I would encourage to "Like" AIM's Facebook page and stay up on what is going on over here in Cambodia. Include them in your daily prayers. If you heart leads you, go to their webpage and DONATE.

Amazing End to an Amazing Two Weeks

I am writing this post while still trying to process everything that has happened over the last two weeks. In the boxing gym, we went from complete strangers to brothers.

Our last workout was well attended and I made it a pretty hard one. By the end of two weeks, they had our basic routine down, now it was time to crush it. And, crush it we did! After the workout a couple fighters took naps on the floor of the gym. That's what I like to see.

Our afternoon devotional was lead by Justin. Justin did a great wrap up, discussing the importance of being focused daily on Jesus and using their coach, or each other, as accountability partners. Justin and I finished by giving our heart felt thanks to each member of the gym for their respect and friendship. Then, I wasn't ready for this: They went around and individually told us how much our time there meant to them, and they hoped we would come back soon. I was deeply moved. Coach SomKhan closed in prayer. He prayed for us and our families at home.

The fighters took turns giving us hugs and wanted to take pictures with us. What a great group of young men. I will miss them very much. I do however plan on continuing my support of the gym though producing training videos on Youtube and advising them on the future expansion of the gym. I even see a Skype workout in the future!

 

 

Good bye Cambodia. Hope to see you next year!

- Clay Cranford

 

Don't Small Ball God

Every day, Justin, Eddie (a member from a different missions team), and I have been building relationships with the fighters in the Gym. We have been leading devotionals after their boxing training, talking about our personal journey's to becoming Christians, who Jesus is, and how to have a relationship with him.

On Wednesday, instead of doing the devotional, we asked the fighters who wanted to invite Jesus into their hearts. Earlier that morning we prayed as a team. We asked for God to soften their hearts to his word. We meekly prayed for one, maybe two men to accept Christ.

Sitting in a circle on the floor, we asked who would like to invite Jesus into their heart. Out of the 16 men there, about 12 hands went up. I was blown away. Eddie and I glanced at each other in amazement. With heads bowed and eyes closed, these men asked God to forgive them and to make Jesus the center of their lives. Smiling faces and applause from the men followed.

The following day I gave a short devotional on 1 Cor 9:24-27. Paul compares the Christian life to running a race or training for a boxing match. This was an analogy these men understood very well. We had some fighters in attendance that weren't there for the previous day's invitation. So, again, I asked if anyone wanted to pray to invite Jesus into their hearts. A couple new hands went up. Again, I was amazed by what God was doing in this gym. We prayed holding hands sitting on the floor.

I can see now that when we prayed and asked God for one, maybe two hearts changed, we were low balling God. What I learned from this is not to put God in a box, and not to project my insecurities onto the God of creation. It seems silly now that we every did. He is faithful even when we are small minded.

 

Tim's Perspective: Putting God In A Box

Every morning, as a team we have a devotional and then spend some time praying.  Yesterday morning, we knew that someone was going to be presenting the gospel and an altar call at the Lord's Gym in the afternoon.  We praying earnestly that "one and maybe even two" would come to know Him.  Imagine our shock when twelve of the sixteen present accepted Christ!

We have had an incredible trip, but the salvation of twelve souls blew us all away.  This is the reason why we are here. This is the reason why Agape International started the Lord's Gym.  These are twelve teenage boys and young men who would likely be up to no good without a positive outlet like the gym.  Now these twelve young men will be mentored by mature Christians who are their coaches.  Our hopes and prayers are that these young men will grow up to be might warriors of Christ Jesus and will alter their community here.

The work that Agape International and the local church are doing here in Cambodia is, frankly, pretty mind numbing.  It is hard to take in.  Their ministry is so multifaceted.  It is transforming an entire community for Christ.  The other day the pastor shared that as he looks out on his congregation, he says that he sees former pimps, former brothel owners, and former abused girls all worshipping together!  Crazy...

As a team, however, as we reflected, we laughed about the grace and majesty of our God who likely laughed at our prayer for TWO to be saved.   That is how our God rolls.  He is able and does do so much more than we can ever hope or imagine (Eph. 3:20). 

Our God is so big. Too often we put Him in a box.  Thankfully, sometimes He ignores the box that we try and build around Him, and blows our puny hopes to smithereens.

Praise God with us for TWELVE young men who have given their lives for Christ.

Twelve of these young men committed their lives to Christ!